Gene Luen Yang and Thien Pham, author and illustrator of the recent Level Up graphic novel, have been having fun with classic video game characters over at Tor.com. Each four-panel comic is a sort of “where are they now?” with famous characters like Mario, Centipede, Q-bert, and Frogger. So far there are only four strips up but they’re all great. I think the weird cognitive dissonance of seeing digital characters rendered in Pham’s soft watercolors is part of the charm.
The site says there will be strips “twice a day this week” but I don’t know how many strips there will be in all. I’m hoping to see Pac-Man, Link, and Tetris before long, though.
Just a note: cute as they are, the strips are intended for adults. Your kids probably wouldn’t get the jokes anyway.
Check out Legends of the Joystick here.